“Have you forgotten?” he recalled softly, the cherry-blossom curve of his lips bending into a beautiful arc, tracing a hazy smile. “The three of us—Yin Xiaomo, Yin Cheng, Luo Xi—participated in that show together…”
He began to hum softly.
In his low singing, she vaguely drifted back to that stage from long ago.
……
Sixteen-year-old him stood up from the audience. A star-like white light, a brilliant column of radiance; his eyes were bright as stars, his skin as beautiful as cherry blossoms… Standing center stage, holding her hand with his left and Little Cheng’s with his right, he sang a beautiful melody…
……
“… Day by day growing up Day by day blooming Mom is the sunlight I am the sunflower on the windowsill Never feeling sad Never withering …”
……
The green leaves of the ivy rustled softly in the fine rain.
Luo Xi hummed quietly, almost silently, like the still starlight in the deep night. She stared blankly, a bewitching smile gradually appearing at the corners of her lips, as if he and she had never grown up, as if time had paused on that one night and never moved forward again…
Luo Xi suddenly stopped.
“When I was alone in England, every time I thought of this, I felt so foolish and ridiculous, to have been fooled by such fleeting happiness. Haven’t I learned enough lessons by now?”
She laughed bitterly.
The color of his lips was as pale as petals whose hues have been washed out by the rain.
“…But if it weren’t for these memories, perhaps I would have given up on myself back in England.” “At that time, I told myself I absolutely had to come back, to find out why I was the one who was abandoned… But later, that didn’t matter anymore.”
He gazed at her in silence.
“But this time, why was I abandoned again?”
“Luo Xi…”
On the veranda, fine threads of rain drifted down diagonally, and the ivy leaves were covered in shimmering, beaded droplets of water. She took a deep breath and said quietly:
“…Didn't you say we should break up?”
The extended Lincoln limousine drove smoothly down the road.
Ou Chen gazed silently out the window; the rain streaks wove diagonally across the glass, and in the cool, clear light and shadow, his profile appeared profound and solitary.
Finally, he could be with her.
Finally, he could merge her life and his life into a single whole.
Finally, he could see her the moment he opened his eyes every morning, allow her breath to fill his world, often gaze upon her face, and no longer fear being forgotten by her…
But…
Why did her unhappiness cut into his heart like a knife…
Even though she always smiled and always tried her best to conceal it, there was an undeniable emptiness in her eyes, as if everything was slowly devouring her life.
He knew that she, in fact…
Ou Chen pursed his lips dismissively.
Clenching his phone, Ou Chen’s fingers were stiffly pale, his palm slightly damp. He had been holding the phone for a very long time, transparent raindrops pattered and rustled, tapping silently against the car window glass.
The extended Lincoln limousine traveled quietly down the road.
The rain scene was silent.
His fingers slowly dialed a number on the phone, and after a long pause, he finally pressed the call button. Ou Chen stared at the fine rain outside the window, as if looking at the retreating figure of her just now disappearing from the hospital, and said to the person on the other end:
“…Please postpone the wedding date for now.” Summer's Incantation III